HON. W. P REEVES AT DUNEDIN

Temuka Leader, Issue 2507, 25 May 1893, Page 2

HON. W. P REEVES AT DUNEDIN

At the invitation of the Party in Dunedin, the Hon. W. P, Reeyes, th( Minister for Education and Labor,] addressed a meeting in the Dunedin City Hall on Tuesday night. The hall was crowded in every part, and a large number of ladieg were in the gallery. The chair was occupied by Mr D- Pinkerton. Mr Reeves, who was received with loud applause, before dealing with political matters referred to THE DEATH OF ME BALLANCE. He said : 1 should have preferred, for a reason which may be obvious to you, to have disposed of ordinary matters before trusting myself to refer to our dead chief. Yet you will agree with me that it would be wanting in respect to his memory for me to give precedence to-night to any other topic, however important. His loss is too fresh and too keenly felt for that. His services to the nation have been acknowledged with a burst of just and generous feeling throughout the length and breadth of New Zealand. The heavy blow that his death has struck our party is admitted by every Liberal. It seems almost an intrusion that, amid such national regret, I should refer to the personal feelings of a colleague : but John Ballance was too much to us, and we —I mean the members of his Cabinet —owed very much to him. I am sure you will forgive me if I refer for a moment to our personal sense of loss. There are strong and capable men left in our party; but I for one never expect to follow cjuite such a leader again, one so generous as a chief, so sympathetic as a colleague, so kind and loyal as a friend. There used to be a notion spread about at one time rather sedulously that Mr Ballance was deficient in determination, and even in political courage. Those who formed this strange idea had not, of course, served in a Cabinet with him. If they had, they 1

would have known that as a Premier, and I say it emphatically, he knew how to be master in his own house. He not only led his lieutenants in Parliament, and was every inch a leader before the country, but was careful to guide and direct them behind the scenes. You must {remember that in former Governments he had been in turn Minister for Education, Minister for Lands and Native Minister, as well as Treasurer: so that it was not wonderful that his active, industrious mind made itself felt in the many departments of which he was the head. Yet, with all his vigilance and eagerness, there was always the same never-failing conrtesy to his intimates that there was to the outside world. Speaking as one of the youngest and least-experienced of his lieutenants, I can never express too strongly my feelings of gratitude to him. In the various perplexities and doubts that besot a young Minister, one always had a friend as well as an adviser in John Ballauce. If one committed a mistake, he always made the least of it instead of the most. If one scored a success he made the most of it and not the least. He was great enough to be utterly generous. I need not say that he was sincere, everyone admits that now; but there was one trait . in his character on which I should like to dwell. That is, that of all the successful and able men I have known, he was absolutely the most unassuming and unpretentious. In fact, he was, if possible, too kindly, too deferential, too easy, too accessible. He gave his time and attention and brains and health too freely, and sparing himself in nothing, wore himself out too soon. When he became Premier he had but one colleague who had been in office before, and-, that one was away in the Upper House. He had to build up a party, which his critics said at the time had no basis or solidarity, hardly even existence. He had to carry a policy which, alike in finance, land law, and labour reform, was so bold an innovation that it was certain to provoke extraordinary and bitter opposition. As you know, it did so. Nearly all the larger and abler newspapers were angrily against him, and though he had a faithful majority in the Lower House, he was utterly without a following in the Upper. In these straits you know what he did. He turned to the people, and used the platform against the Press from north to south, and his friends appealed, explained, defended, until the majority had been convinced and the victory won. Then was shown the irony of fate. Our chief fell in the moment of victory, when his finance was vindicated, his land settlement under way, good feeling between the classes growing and prosperity on the increase. Everything had fulfilled his hopes. He had won in the struggle. We now know at what a cost. It would not be right of me, even where I able, to paint for you a detailed picture of the long, last, weary battle. I can only add my tribute to the curiously placid courage with which he went down into the valley of the shadow of death. Day after day during those months one saw him address himself doggedly to public businesf. I can remember how, as one went into the room, the weary face used to brighten up with welcome, the pleasant voice began to talk clearly and not only about important affairs of policy, but even the smallest and most troublesome details of Ministerial work. Yet I do not think that he ever deceived i himself about his fate, and I know that towards the end he knew it. Shortly before the operation he quietly gave a number of private and business instructions and directions to one who was 1 always with him. Then he said, quite ; cheerfully, “ I have told you all this, but do not think I shall not fight for it; lam going to make a hard fight.” But then | he muttered something to himself, and the person to whom he was speaking, listening anxiously, caxight the well-known line “ In that fight was death the gainer.” Ladies and gentlemen, I do not contend that the statesman who stands to his post at the risk of life, and balls there worn out, makes so glorious or dramatic an end as the hero who falls on the field of battle for his country, or those martys who in days past went to the dungeon or the stake for their faith. But death is a hard thing. Life must have been very valuable to our chief. Very much done, very much left to do; his mind unclouded and vigorous; the ball at his foot. Yet rather than buy a Iqng life he went on doing your work, “ bankrupt of life, but prodigal of ease,” making no parade, brave, steadfast to the end. His was the death of a true hero and a martyr to duty. (Loqd Applause), THE POLIOV OP THE GOVEBKMENT. If instead of it being left to him (Mr Reeves) to draw the bow of Ulysses, the late Premier had been before them that evening, how triumphantly he could have vindicated the policy of the Government. (Applause.) There was the largest surplus on record in the history of New Zealand, together with the smallest unauthorised expenditure, Then again, the direct taxation had been adjusted so that the burden h*d been placed on the shoulders of those best able to bear it; foaUnff between master and man had o been greatly improved ; the labour legislation had been very successful, and the Conservative prediction that capital would be driven "out of the colony,' had been completely falsified. The exodus to Ausfral.a had been replaced by an influx, and the unemployed were being provided for. Ho pointed opt what had been done in the way of land legislation, and said that under the present Government, purchases of Native land were made at a rate five times in excess of the purchases of the late Government. Our credit has been renewed and restored, and instead of being the lowest, was nqw the highest of any of the Australian Colonies ; and, instead of being “the poor relation” of the Australian group, we were now “the curlyheaded boy.” And, so far from being treated with the studied indifference to which we were accustomed in the past, our experiments in legislation were studied by statesmen throughout the world, All this had been brought about without the imposing of any fresh taxation or begging of new loans. Her Majesty’s Opposition had been good enonghjto say that the Government waseutitlod to n o credit whatever for the position of the colony,but seeing that the Opposition had not very long ago declared that if the Colony came to disaster the Government would bo responsible, he was entitled to claim that if the Government had such immense power for evil, it had also some power for good. (Applause). After dealing with Opposition prophecies, Mr Reevess referred to Mr Allen’s charges that the Government had followed the American principle of “ the spoils to the victors,” and challenged the completest inquiry into every appointment made by the Government, contending that no previous Government had been so free froni papty bias in the appointments it madp as the present administration. Having dealt with Mr Scobio Mackenzie’s recent speech, he said it had been constantly stated that THE LABOUR BUBEAU tended to sap the self-reliance of the poorer classes. The object of the Bureau

was to bring the work in one part of the Colony and the unemployed in another together. Was that sapping self-reliance ? It was often said in commercial circles that the circulation of money was a matter of importance, but he held that the circulation of labour was no less important. (Applause). He did not believe that the self-reliance of man was sapped because instead of wandering about the town with his hands in his pokets, or going to the Charitable Aid Board for maintenance, he was sent to the country to do good and useful work. (Applause). The Government was charged with being a “ row of extinct volcanoes,” and with having no policy. Its work was really commencing. (Applause). In his Department he had the

ARBITRATION AND CONCILATION BILL to bring forward, which he hoped to pass into law next session. (Applause). He dealt with Opposition criticism of the Bill, and pointed out that the Bill, unless made compulsory, would be absolutely worthless. It was said that there was no guarantee that the employers would not close their works, or the men leave their employment sooner than obey an award. It was nonsense to suppose that the awards of the Court would be of such a nature that people would rather be ruined than obey them. He wanted to know why the Railway Commissioners should, as claimed by the Conservatives, be exempted from the provisions of the Bill; and with respect to the charge that the object of the Bill was to drive all men into the ranks of the Unions, he said that all the labour disputes had been between the employers and the Unionists. The free labourers were supposed to work amicably with their employers, and did not require legislating for. The Conseivatives charged the Government with legislating too much, but now they blame it because it did not thrust legislation down the throats of people who did not want it. Besides, the Bill could only be made applicable to Unions. It would bring the Bill into ridicule if its provisions could be brought into force for the adjustment of differences between, say, a man and his cook. A Union was a substantial thing with a name to lose, andl did not want to drag its members into Court for nothing. He intended to introducejthe •riginal

SHOH HOUES BILL at once. (Applause.) He had accepted the bill as amended by the Council under protest. It was not even half a leaf, but he accepted it as a crust. He had prophesied what the working of the mutilated Bill would be, and he was sure that both, the employers and employees had had enough of it as it now stoo *. Mr Reeves next referred to the Legislative Council, and its treatmeu t of labour legislations. He hoped to make the Labour Department a great instrument for the collection of reliable labour statistics. He hoped to repeal the old Workmen’s Wages Act and pass a measure that workmen should not be done out of their wages when they earned them. (Applause.) Then the obsolete and tyrannical conspiracy law and the factory law as regarded factory work done outside factories needs attention, (Applause.) He spoke of what had been done in THE EDUCATION DEPAETMENT, and indicated what he intended to do in the future. He hoped to obtain increased provision for school buildings, and in other ways benefit the system. The matter of the inspection of primary schools demanded attention. He had asked and prayed the boards to attend to the matter, and if they neglected it much longer it would be his duty to ask Parliament to attend to it for them. The system of secondary education needed revising, because we were as far behind England in respect of secondary education as we were ahead of that country in primary education. His idea was that the one should be the complement of the other. (Applause). He concluded by urging THE LIBBKAIi PAETY to stand shoulder to shoulder. They must not conclude that because the Conservatives were apparently quiescent they were not nerving all their energies for the approaching election. Should the Liberals therefore not work together, it might mean that the Conservatives would again return to power, when they would undo as much of the work of the last three years as they thought they people would sqbmit to. The question would the people submit to this work being undone? (“Ho, no.” Loud anil long continued applause.) After a few questions had been answered, Mr Jolly moved thi meeting tenders “a cordial vote of thanks to Mr Reeves for his address, and expresses unabated confidence in the present Ministry.” This was carried unanimously amid much enthusiasm. The meeting closed with a vote of thanks to the chairman, moved by Mr Reeves.